Sunday Dec 9, 2012 (foodconsumer.org) -- Obesity is known to increase risk of death from breast cancer. A new study in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research suggests taking vitamin D supplements or getting sufficient sun exposure may help reduce the increase in the risk.

M. L. Morton and C. L. Thompson at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, USA reviewed studies on the association between vitamin D and body mass index, and risk of death from breast cancer and found low vitamin D is partially responsible for the increase in risk of death from breast cancer in overweight and obese breast cancer patients.

The authors say "Increased body mass index (BMI) and decreased serum vitamin D are both known to be associated with increased mortality from breast cancer," and recent studies "found that low vitamin D levels in the overweight and obese account for up to 40% of the BMI-attributable risk of developing breast cancer."

Morton and Thompson estimated that "low vitamin D levels may be responsible for roughly 16% of the increased mortality from breast cancer in overweight and obese patients."

Vitamin D has been associated with more than 100 health conditions including all types of Western diseases like cancer, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome, according to Vitamin D Council.

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